Looking for some help here while I’m away in Mallorca. Got Ali (sports editor at the telegraph) after some information on how we are where we are - see request attached. I could go on for ages about our ownership history, but I’m going to link him to this topic and let you guys add why you think we are where we are so there are different opinions.
Looking for some help here while I’m away in Mallorca. Got Ali (sports editor at the telegraph) after some information on how we are where we are - see request attached. I could go on for ages about our ownership history, but I’m going to link him to this topic and let you guys add why you think we are where we are so there are different opinions.
Thanks
Louis
You don't need any help, you have identified the problems yourself Sherlock.
Ahhhh Luce, not the most helpful response ever when a proper national newspaper is possibly willing to expose what Dave Thomas should have made public months ago.
Ali, there are too many posts on here for you to trawl through but a good starting point would be a thread entitled 'Two hundred percent - TUFC death on the Riviera' which now is on page 4 I think.
As I am rubbish at providing links and quotey bits, I will have to paraphrase a further post from Plainmoor78 who put it in a nutshell when stating 'Osborne is not here to run a football club. Harrop introduced him to the opportunity to secure a land grab at the club's expense'.
Whilst we are all feeling defeated and, well, totally pissed off at the situation, I'm hoping that some posters who are much more eloquent than myself (step up now rjc!) will be willing to save Ali some serious digging and briefly sum up what has been going on.
Yorkieandy wrote: 08 Apr 2018, 19:30Looks like it's all Mr Tweedale is gonna get judging by this no show. Folk moan that the press pay no interest and when they do we get the above. Not much.
Perhaps he's asking on the only forum he's been aware of.......there is of course another one with another much disliked individual by people on here who has diligently exposed this story from day one along with some other equally concerned and dilligent people. One who has been accused of lying by the club and not being authentic by the tame local media.
Click onto http://thelondonlabia.proboards.com/ and there is nigh on three years of expose and background information to all the central characters in this sad decline of a football club.
It's a sad decline as we head in denationalisation for the first time in 100 odd years. Multiple generations and other inputs have had us where we are going.
I don't think I could write a amatuer article on it because it's just not one thing.
Perhaps someone on here or in Penn inn could simplify it
westyorkshiregull wrote: 08 Apr 2018, 20:16
It's a sad decline as we head in denationalisation for the first time in 100 odd years.
I take it by denationalisation you mean relegation to the regionalized national conference south?
Torquay united did not play national football until 1958, when football league divisions three north and division three south were merged into division three and four.
So we are entering denationalisation for the first time in 60 years not 100 years.
Well if you look at it that way !! , though division 3 south was a much higher standing being joint 3rd tier than the sixth tier we are heading into.
Actually I said DEnationalisation ...we were never demoted to old 3rd division south as it where we went from the southern league which wasn't a national league.
But being in the old 3rd division south had national benefits like fa cup status ect
I could have said first time ever we have been denationalised !! I think it's obvious what I meant as first time we have gone down this far since 1927
Get my drift
Thanks for the kind words, westy, but I’m not the one for that job.
Here would be my framework, though, for what it’s worth. The real story is that it is the lowest position since election to the Football League in 1927; no signs that things are likely to change for the better as they plunge into regional football; a favourable description of our current stadium compared to others in National League South; followed by the history of the present owner when he promises a new stadium eg: at Bristol, MK, Reading, Swindon and all the other venues mentioned by haldonrambler on the ‘Club Ownership’ thread on BTPIR.
A quick mention of lottery winner ownership; period of optimism when first found ourselves in National League; promotion back via Wembley; succession of poor managers, including twice opting for ex players with no management experience and off field problems after Ling’s illness, relegation, efforts of previous ownership; Dave Phillips saying GI not the best of bedfellows weeks before GI come in; the GI loan and back to concentrating on this owner; repeated references by him to a multi-purpose stadium as mentioned at those other places to the backdrop of on field woes and after fan survey said no thanks; freehold petition and into owners track record at those other places again.
Also an update on ‘debt free’ post Thea to recent accounts suggesting hundreds of thousand in debt to GI/RSL/Osborne now.
Possible things to mention would be Bryn the Dog 1987; flirting with relegation years prior to first season in National League inc Barnet last match decider; Bateson saying ‘Never again’; Nutjob Chris Roberts ownership; Leroy back as Manager for 10 minutes.
The stuff the Herald Express ignore about the current owner needs to be covered. But I think I may have mentioned that...
You can trace our demise back a long way. For instance you could say it began the day that Mike Batson decided he didn't want to own a football club anymore.
Which led to the Chris Roberts take over which was responsible for our relegation in 2007. Which would eventually lead to the Bristows involvement with their lottery money, which would lead to the club, while supposedly being debt free but with massive liabilities, being 'sold' to the Dean Edwards consortium. Which got screwed over by the same Dean Edwards leaving Dave Philips and co to pick up the pieces and trying to save the club with virtually no money which could only end in tears which it did when GI stepped in with their £120k loan to finance the second half of the 2015/16 season.
The demise goes back further than that: it goes back to the appointment of Allan Brown as Manager. Before that we had a FABULOUSLY successful team, with players that cannot be compared with any which came after (exception of Lors). The attendances were averaging 10000 - easily enough to make a profit - and the future looked bright. With the 'promotion' (as it were ) of Frank O'Farrell it now seems that the next managerial appointment would be the crucial one, and so it proved. For reasons unknown to me and most supporters players - our brilliant stars (for make no mistake about it, that's what they were) - were, one by one, moved on; of course, the greatest folly was the selling of The Prince of Plainmoor to Bristol Rovers - for twelve thousand quid for goodness' sake! After that it was - and has been - downhill all the way. Our relegation in 1972 marked the death knell of the club. The rest has been silence.
Ali would like to give Clarke a chance to be interviewed and this should hit the press for next week. Other than calling the club would anyone have a better direct way of getting hold of him please? PM me if you have a number. Thanks.
